Trans women’s advantage in sports analyzed and in photos | Daily Mail Online

  • The hugely divisive issue of trans participation in sport returned to the spotlight after a school girls’ team won a state title with help from a trans girl
  • It’s the latest flashpoint in the debate that was thrust into the mainstream when trans swimmer Lia Thomas became an NCAA champion in March 2022
  • Researchers and elite athletes say the science speaks for itself: Trans women have a physical advantage that can’t be undone

Olympic medalists were among critics who joined the backlash to Chloe Barnes’ role in Brookline High School’s victory in Massachusetts. Barnes is a junior who competed under rules that allow students to ‘participate in a manner consistent with their gender identity’.

It’s the latest flashpoint in the debate at state legislatures across America and in Congress, where Republicans propose banning trans women and girls from women’s team sports. The issue was thrust into the mainstream when trans swimmer Lia Thomas became an NCAA champion in March 2022.

Supporters of inclusion claim fairness can be maintained when trans women assigned male at birth compete against women, while opponents that argue women’s sports must be protected face accusations of transphobia.

But cut through the often toxic political mudslinging that dominates the debate and, according to researchers and elite athletes, the science speaks for itself: Trans women have a physical advantage over biological females – and no treatment exists which can unravel that.

Source: Trans women’s advantage in sports analyzed and in photos | Daily Mail Online

WPUK Statement in solidarity with Australian women – Woman’s Place UK

Statement in response to reports from Australia of members of the far-right National Socialist Network attending a Let Women Speak event in Melbourne today.

Women are not responsible for the actions of men or those who want to use the concerns women have for their own political ends. However, the presence of neo-Nazis at women’s rights events is a wake-up call to the need for explicit differentiation between women organising in defence of our rights and those far-right actors who seek to exploit this organising. As a political campaign we believe we have a responsibility to reaffirm our position.

Source: WPUK Statement in solidarity with Australian women – Woman’s Place UK

New Detransitioner Announces Intent To Sue For Childhood Medical Transition

A young detransitioned woman is seeking justice from the medical group and hospital that facilitated her medical transition between the ages of 12 to 17, which included puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and a double mastectomy at just 13 years old.

The plaintiff, Layla Jane, is represented by the Dhillon Law Group and LiMandri & Jonna LLP in conjunction with the Center for American Liberty. On Wednesday, a letter of intent to sue was sent to the Permanente Medical Group and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals alleging “gross negligence” on behalf of their client, and accusing Kaiser of allowing “radical, inadequately studied, off-label, and essentially experimental treatment to occur on minors.”

The Intent to Sue further alleges that Layla’s doctors medically “affirmed” her without meaningful evaluation, failed to adequately disclose the health risks associated with puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone treatment, and emotionally manipulated her parents by proposing the false dilemma: “would you rather have a live son, or a dead daughter?”

Layla’s transition story bears striking similarities to that of Chloe Cole. Both of them are now 18 years old and are taking legal action against Kaiser Permanente and the doctors who facilitated their chemical and surgical transitions as minors, two of whom they shared.

Layla Jane is now the 8th detransitioner worldwide to have brought legal action against the medical providers that facilitated her chemical and surgical transition. She will be seeking punitive damages, the extent of which is currently “being investigated and is not fully known at this time.” The Notice of Intent to Sue will allow the defendants 90 days to respond before an official lawsuit is filed.

While the exact number of detransitioners is unknown, and more research is needed, cases appear to be steadily rising. A forum created in 2017 for detransitioners on Reddit is adding over 1,000 members a month, and as of this writing has over 45,000 members.

In the United States, a 2022 study found that 29 percent of 68 patients seeking medical transition care changed their requests for hormone treatment, surgery, or both. Another U.S. study from last year found that 30 percent of patients who began cross-sex hormone treatment discontinued it within four years for unknown reasons.

Source: New Detransitioner Announces Intent To Sue For Childhood Medical Transition

Latest News from the Front Lines of Feminism: 03-16-2023

 

B.P.J. v. West Virginia State Board of Education is the first “Save Women’s Sports” bill to receive scrutiny from the nation’s highest court.
WoLF has filed an amicus (Friend-of-the-Court) brief with the US Supreme Court in the case of B.P.J. v. West Virginia State Board of Education in support of a West Virginia law that protects Title IX female-only sports teams by limiting eligibility on such teams only to women and girls on the basis of sex.

In this case, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) seeks to use a middle school child to challenge West Virginia’s Save Women’s Sports Act in an effort to move toward eliminating single-sex sports for women and girls. If the Court accepts the Application, its decision would likely affect the seventeen other states that have passed legislation to protect single-sex sports. West Virginia is now asking the Supreme Court to reverse the Fourth Circuit’s decision and make it clear that the West Virginia law should be enforced. In its brief, WoLF defends the West Virginia law on feminist grounds, which rejects the ideology of “gender identity.” WoLF also argues that sex-based rights and protections cannot be dismissed based on the idiosyncratic and subjective belief about gender identity, a quasi-spiritual concept… Read more about our latest legal filing here.

Source: Latest News from the Front Lines of Feminism: 03-16-2023

Preacher who misgendered(sic) trans woman did not break law

A judge has quashed the conviction of an evangelical Christian who was found guilty of misgendering a transgender woman while preaching in the street.

Dave McConnell, from Wakefield in West Yorkshire, had been convicted by a magistrate last year of causing harassment, alarm or distress to Farrah Munir, 19, who self-identified as a woman.

McConnell repeatedly referred to Munir as a “man” and a “gentleman” while addressing the public in the centre of Leeds in 2021. Munir had approached the preacher as he spoke to a small crowd and asked him: “Does God accept the LGBT community?”

McConnell, 42, was convicted of a public order offence and sentenced to a 12-month community order with 80 hours of unpaid work.

Source: 12ft | Preacher who misgendered trans woman did not break law

How the Family Court has failed children | The Saturday Paper

The Family Court’s emphasis on shared custody has left children vulnerable to abusive fathers, but changes are coming that should put the child’s interests first.

Women repeatedly told me that their history of experiencing domestic violence, even when reported to police, even when it resulted in AVOs, even when there were witnesses, was not just disregarded by the court but caused the women to be regarded with suspicion.

Pip Rae, who worked as a New South Wales police officer for 20 years, dealing primarily with domestic violence, points her finger at systemic issues. Now a private investigator, she says that child protection services and police work at cross-purposes. “Child protection services have three criteria: no risk, significant risk and high risk. Police have innocent or guilty.”

Despite increased social awareness and understanding of the complexities and dangers of family violence, Rae says, the system has deteriorated. “In 2002, due to cost blowouts, the requirement for prosecution shifted from ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’ or prima facie to ‘likelihood of getting a conviction’, and this led to sexual assault and DV charges being less likely to get up, because they are more difficult to prove.”

Angela Lynch, advocacy manager for domestic violence service provider Full Stop Australia, agrees. “Since 2006, in response to lobbying by men’s rights groups, the Family Court must start from a presumption of equal, shared parental responsibility. This works fine in most divorces but those that come before the court are the most complex: 80 per cent of matters in the Family Court have a background of family violence and 70 per cent a background of child abuse.”

Like many similar services, Full Stop has made a submission to the federal government in response to proposed new legislation that would reverse changes made to the Family Court in 2006. The proposals are to place the interest of the child at the centre of the court’s responsibilities when it comes to custody and access arrangements. The consultation period ended this week and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has promised to legislate this year.

“The presumption of shared parental responsibility has contributed to a demonisation of mothers, especially if they allege family violence or child abuse,” Lynch says. “They are immediately seen as hostile to the system norm of shared parenting.”

Laura, a lawyer, says she was so traumatised by the violence she experienced at the hands of her ex-partner, which included rape, strangulations and attempts to run her over, she was unable to cope with shared access. She collapsed at handovers and later in the court, where she was accused of “faking”.

Misdiagnosed by a court-appointed expert as suffering from borderline personality disorder – she has since been re-diagnosed with PTSD – she lost custody of her son to the man who had terrorised her.

Laura says many lawyers explicitly warn their clients against alleging family violence or child abuse, even if, as in Laura’s case, their partner was charged by police and convicted.

The consequence of this shared-parenting emphasis in complex Family Court battles has been decades of devastated mothers and children sent back into high-risk situations. Jen’s daughter is an adult now, but no longer has any relationship with either of her parents. As Laura says, “You can leave the violent relationship, but the Family Court won’t let you escape it. Not with your child.”

Source: How the Family Court has failed children | The Saturday Paper

The money was just resting in their account

A scandal is breaking in Ireland as it is emerging that the country’s equality minister, Roderic O’Gorman has been transferring large sums of money to gender identity projects for the last 18 months, money which had been earmarked for spending on initiatives for ethnic minorities and survivors of state-sponsored abuse. Most shockingly, money was taken from The Magdalene Laundry Redress fund, which aims to pay compensation for women and girls who’d been abused by the Catholic church and the Irish state in those infamous institutions.

One of the major beneficiaries is a transgender group that experienced a funding halt from Ireland’s health service due to repeated accounting lapses during the same period.

Source: The money was just resting in their account